Russia has kidnapped more than 200,000 children since the beginning of its invasion UkraineHouse Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said, citing U.S. estimates.
“If a foreign adversary took 260,000 of our children, and they were in indoctrination camps, I mean, how would you feel about that?” McCall asked Fox News Digital.
The Texas Republican was recently outed in his time as Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, but he continues to work on the world stage, in part by raising awareness about Russian atrocities in Ukraine. Among the most disturbing is the transfer of thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia, the vast majority of whom have not been returned.
Some parents would be forced to abandon their children because Russian forces were threatening to bomb their city, while at other times they “invaded and seized the children,” McCall said.
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Rep. Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, discussed his efforts to bring awareness to the thousands of Ukrainian children taken to President Vladimir Putin's Russia. (Getty Images)
The ICC issued arrest warrants in February 2023 for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russia's Children's Rights Commissioner, Maria Lvova Belova, “for the war crime of deportation (of children) and illegal transfer of (children) from the operating regions of Ukraine.”
Lavova Belova was approved last year by the United States for its part in the scheme, which was widely condemned by Western governments.
However, the Kremlin denied the war crimes allegations and stressed that it was carrying out humanitarian work to facilitate homes for Ukrainian children, NPR reported.
However, existing accounts from returned children and elsewhere paint a picture of forced indoctrination within Russia's borders. Some of these children are getting military training, according to Yale Human Research Laboratorymost likely in preparation for combat on Russia's front lines.
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Emergency services work to rescue civilians trapped under the rubble of a destroyed building after a Russian attack on Zaporizhvia, Ukraine on December 10, 2024. (Photo by Zaporizhzhia Military Regional / Bulletin / Anadolu via Getty Images)
Estimates of the number of children transferred to Russia vary between 20,000 and 250,000.
Part of McCall's work raising awareness about Russia's treatment of Ukrainian children will include examining… Documentary film titled“Children on Fire: Ukraine’s War Through the Eyes of Children” by director Evgeny Afineevsky, will be presented at the Munich Security Conference next month.
He has also worked with the non-profit Save Ourene, which works to bring children back.
“In the documentary, the kid is brought into this prison where it looks like the adults are basically using shock electrodes on them, you know, under their fingernails and their genitals, which is just so barbaric,” McCall said. .
He also held a hearing last year on the issue while leading the Foreign Affairs Committee.
McCaul said Russia's kidnapping of children is among the most alleged violations of the Geneva Conventions. He compared it to the famous Nazi doctor Josef Mengele's treatment of Jewish children and adults.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky led the country through an invasion of Russia. (Genya Savilov/AFP via Getty Images)
“It's just evil. I mean, any civilization that would capture — that's one thing if you're on the battlefield killing the enemy, from their perspective,” McCall said. “But capturing children to re-rescue them is kind of reminiscent of, you know, Mengele's experiments on children…and I don't think we've ever seen anything like this in modern society.”
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The House passed a resolution last year condemning Russia's kidnapping of Ukrainian children on a bipartisan vote of 390-9.
“It's just horrific. I can't imagine, as a father, my children, you know, being taken by the Russian Federation and then not knowing where they are or what's happening to them,” McCool said. “But this is all part of Putin’s game, he is trying to color the children in Ukraine to go against their country and belief system.”
